Graduate /
SoP- Masters in Development Research on-Agrarian crisis and impact on peasant women [18]
Dear all,
I am applying for my masters this year, I have planned to pursue my masters in development studies and wish to study my masters thesis on "agrarian crisis and its impact on women". I would appreciate your comments, please do editing , omitting and I am open to all criticism since I want to make it perfect and I want to get admitted there!!
Motivation Letter
"I am not ashamed to admit that if it had not been for her, I would have been long dead. She worked really hard on the farm and to take care of the children and me. Whenever I felt in better health, I would accompany her to the farm or to the shops. What am I going to do without her?" - Sangishetty Yadaiah, farmer from Andhra Pradesh, India
In the last 17 years, more than a quarter of a million Indian farmers and agricultural workers have taken their own lives in response to neo-liberal economic reform policies of 1991 that have left them dependent on expensive, genetically modified seeds, vulnerable on the global market and trapped in a cycle of debt. When we talk about the agrarian crisis in India and the quarter of a million farmers who have committed suicide since 1995, we tend to think about the men and the physical act of suicide-swallowing the very pesticides that landed them in debt after addressing final letters to village heads and prime ministers. The Media coverage of the "suicide epidemic" has largely failed to capture the acute ways in which women agricultural workers have also suffered in the crisis. In India, I have seen time and again that the burden of our economic reforms often falls on the working class, and particularly the women. The farmer suicides are no different, and this particular issue affected me very deeply especially after going through the academic work of P.Sainath, who is one of the first Indians who had worked on the agrarian crisis extensively.
I wanted to connect my interest of gender studies with the farmer suicides, and I know that there are issues beyond the male farmers that needed unlocking. In my under-graduate studies, I was disturbed by the development trajectories of Indian economy since Independence when we were doing our course on "Development Process and Social Movements in Contemporary India" and "Sociology of Contemporary India", where I realized that the terms of growth gains and societal attention have not been for regions, sectors, and social classes in India. As a result, there have been a raise in development demands through various civil, political, and human rights movement. However, due to the patriarchal nature of the Indian society, women in rural India who are still working hard everyday to pay back the debt taken by their husbands, they are taking care of their children's education ,are not even recognised by the Indian government as "farmers", since they rarely hold title to the land on which they work. "They are routinely denied access to credit and loans and rarely have access to government programs. The full scope of this injustice is unclear," says Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) report 2011 , because government programs do not account for this discrimination.
To be able to feel the sufferings of others, is what makes us human , And this is the reason why I want to pursue my masters in development studies and get to the roots of the problem as to why are we not sensitive towards those who didn't die? Why are we not giving agricultural women workers who form the backbone of Indian agriculture and comprise the majority of agricultural laborers any attention?Why is a peasant woman denied space in her own society just because no one is in her family? .As a student, I have always believed in the famous proverb by Brigham Young, that " If you educate a man, you educate a man. If you educate a woman, you educate a generation." thus, as an education officer with the Connecting Dreams Foundation where we adopt a village and try to look for Sustainable and inclusive growth specifically the youth and women by encouraging them and acknowledging their traditional skills by introducing them with big corporates, I tried to encourage the peasant women to study and get educated as with education they would understand a situation differently and they would know their rights and would teach their offspring about it also, they would try to eliminate the social barriers of the society which bound them within their private spheres.
I believe that I would want to study the hidden suffering of the impact of agrarian crisis on the peasant women extensively and I am certainly sure that Graduate Institute is the place which would give me a platform to understand this problem in a practical and boundless manner and would help me in understanding this problem at a global level. I am sure that this is not a problem with my own country, there must be so many stories from all over the world. I want to understand this problem from a global perspective as it would not only broaden my horizon in understanding and identifying the problem, it would also give me the practical and workable solutions that would help me a lot in helping people of my country. The Institute was a chance introduction to me by my French teacher. Thereafter, I spent quite a lot of time browsing the Institute's website, reading faculty profiles, alumni success stories and watching the YouTube clips of Roberto , Kofi Annan and Ricardo speak to packed student audiences.
At present, none of the central universities and Institutes in India are offering an Interdisciplinary masters in Development Studies. Apart from the Institute has a reputation of giving both theoretical and practical knowledge as compared to the Masters in Development studies in Oxford, which have a reputation of being so theoretical, in the sense of divorced from anything practical in the 'real-world'. I personally don't mind theoretical knowledge provided it's rigorous. But what I really don't want to do is end up spending two years fascinated by facts and theories and in the end would feel like I don't know what I've learned. I need to work along with my studies in order to implement my theory into practise and this Institute would give me professional skills along with theoretical knowledge which would make me stand out in the global level. As far as MSC. In Development Studies in LSE is concerned, it would be very expensive for me as well as being only a one year program. I'm concerned that by the time I started to get my bearings and figure out a specific focus, the course would be over.There is far too much to learn and unlearn and one year is not enough. It would be way too heavy for one year. Thus, Graduate Institute is the only place from where I will be able to work on my concerned issue effectively where I will be able to study under the supervision of professors who have so much experience in the field of development and Gender. I could relate to Prof.Elisabeth Prügl, who would teach the course on gender sustainability, an article on "Does Gender Mainstreaming Work? Feminist Engagements with the German Agricultural State," where she writes how gender mainstreaming has rekindled debates about feminist engagements with the State.and that it is in line with my academic interests and because of that I would benefit from being a part of the Institute. I have no doubt that development studies at the Institute will meet the criteria of intellectual rigor that I have set for myself, for my education, and for those I have promised to serve.
I always believe in the concept of being a "Global Citizen", and thus after completion of my masters from the Institute, I will return to my home country, and would join rural organizations who are already working for this cause in order to accomplish enormous service.And if given a chance It would be my privilege to work for women from all over the world since this problem persists not only in my country, it is a worldwide phenomenon. We all live once and I believe that with this life we should bring a change in the society that we want to see, as said by Gandhi.
I am confident that overall opportunity to study with the Institute will broaden my horizons and give me an opportunity to gain world-class education and help me become an excellent citizen of this world. I am really very sure that with my personal experience and cultural background I will exceed your expectations and bring a meaningful contribution to the programme. Also, I will work really hard and would definitely be an asset to the Institute in the future.
Thanking you in advance for considering my application.
